Sue and Lee's Vegetable Allotment pages, detailing all that we've been doing on our allotments, from clearing the 8' tall weeds that they were covered in when we started with our first plot in October 2006, through to where we are today, with 2 neighbouring full sized productive organic vegetable growing plots, 2 apiaries and 6 Beehives!!

FYI

Clicking on any of the pictures will open them at full size in the browser window, which means you will have to use the 'back' button to return to the main pages, whereas clicking to the left or right of any picture will open them in a new window, if you fancy a closer look at any of the piccies we've posted! We've included a Google Earth satelite picture of our plots and this years planting plan at the bottom of the page, next to each other. If you choose the Earth view on the satelite image you can rotate the image until it is lined up with the planting plan, then use the arrows in the plan to scroll from Plot 2 to Plot 1.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Beekeeping Update!!

It looks like our girls have been a bit busy, in fact, they've been very busy bees!! We (Pat, Colin, Lee and I) undertook our weekly inspection of the hives yesterday, checking the colonies general health and to see whether the queens are present and whether they have started laying, on opening hive 2 it was to find that some of the smaller super frames (usually used in the super boxes at the top of the hive above the queen excluder, where the bees store the honey) that we had used to fill the brood boxes (the larger bottom section of the hive where the queen lives and lays eggs) had been 'extended' by the workers to increase their size towards that of a normal brood frame!!

On removing the first frame it was to find that the queen in hive 2 (the one that we shook into that hive only 2 weeks ago) has started laying! As you can see from the photo, the eggs are individually laid in the comb cells, the eggs usually hatch after about 3 days and larvae are then fed by the workers for between 5 (worker bees) and 7 (drones) days, before being capped (9 days worker, 10 days drones) when the bees pupate and are 'capped' or sealed into their comb to complete the transformation to adult bees (13 days for a worker, 14 for a drone) to emerge at 21 days (worker) to 24 days (drone) from the laying of the egg to emergence!

Once the larvae are capped it is then possible to determine whether the 'brood' is worker or drone from the shape of the capping, flat capping indicates worker bees whereas a domed cap denotes drones. Only once you have both present can you be certain that the queen has been properly mated and is fertile! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_(honey_bee)

As this photo shows, we also found live larvae in Hive 2, at several stages of development, hopefully when we next do an inspection at the weekend we'll be able to see capped brood of both worker and drone, at which time we'll be able to plan the moving of this hive to our apiary on Moss View Allotments!

We didn't see the queen in hive 2 this time, but we have seen her in the past, so we know that she is in there, but on opening Hive 1 we not only found eggs present, but were able to see the queen in this hive for the first time! Brilliant news, as it means we possibly have 2 viable colonies, though we wont know this for certain until we have capped brood of both drone and worker! Finally a piccy of three of the four of the Moss View Beekeepers! Pat, Colin and Lee inspecting the hive floor inserts to check for Varroa mite 'drop', fortunately there doesnt seem to be any, so with regular management we should be able to keep the hives as clear as possible!

Anyhows, more piccies to follow soon, along with any news on the developments within the hives and our plans to move them to our apiary!

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About Me

I'm a 40 something yr old woman, married to a great guy, Lee, for the past 12 years, am a practicing Pagan Witch, and enjoy life to its fullest extent! Currently we are both enjoying growing our own veg (on our 2 organic allotments), looking after our 6 colonies of apis melifora (honey bee) and practicing my photography (on my ebay special Canon EOS10D) I work as a store manager for a finance provider, and enjoy reading, writing, cooking, camping and many other things besides! We are both passionate dog owners with many years of experience of providing a loving friendly home to our furbabies.

Beekeeping Links

Satelite picture of our Plots - Google Earth

View Larger Map
Switch to Earth view and drag the north marker round to the 4 'o'clock position to orientate them in the same way as the planting plans! Please note, the satelite picture is from last year, when we had the brassicas where the sweetcorn and squashes are this year!

Planting Plan 2010

Use the arrows to switch between Plots 2 (the left hand plot) and Plot 1 (the right hand plot)